Blockchain newsfeeds are mostly noise 2019 study finds

Blockchain newsfeeds are mostly noise 2019 study finds

Blockchain as a topic that is still filled with hype today much of it is driven by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In our conversations with business leaders, they are confused about what to believe and how to filter out the noise to find what matters to them. There are many news articles that imply to readers that blockchain must be used with bitcoin and that bitcoin is blockchain. Both are false.

For a novice business manager who enters this space, the very first challenge is to know what to look for, what questions to ask and who to believe. Given the high volume of daily news and articles published, readers find it extremely difficult to determine who to believe and what information is true. At Blockhelp.pro we conducted a recent study to understand this landscape and found that 85% of news about blockchain news is noise. See chart below for breakdown of findings.

A sample of 3,500 blockchain news feed items was analyzed over a period of 3 weeks with the intent of identifying announcements of businesses using blockchain technology. Such information as new companies exploring blockchain solutions, new business products, pilot installations and deployments of blockchain in healthcare, payments, fin-tech, supply chain and others was sought in order to assess what is real about blockchain in business enterprise.

In our analysis we found high volumes of daily confusing information crowded with; many repeats of the same news, considerable hype about bitcoin and other cryptocurrency topics, opinions of many writers on the same topic, future predictions on blockchain adoptions, and bitcoin debates. Finding real news about actual blockchain deployments and pilots is like drinking from a water house.

These findings should alert readers that they should be diligent in accepting all news content about blockchain as true. There are many self proclaimed experts on blockchain who mislead the readers to believe that blockchain without bitcoin is not blockchain. This is completely false. But how does the reader know that not everything they read is true about blockchain?

In technology evolution stage terms, blockchain is a very new technology promising to revolutionize how we conduct business. However, blockchain still has to prove that it will revolutionize our businesses. There is still much work to be done to validate this. In the meantime, it’s important to alert and guide readers to be diligent about what they read and accept about what blockchain is and what it can do for them.

At a recent Blockchain Revolution conference held in Toronto Canada, we had the opportunity to speak to many conference attendees who were business leaders looking for evidence on what is really happening with blockchain in their industry. A common response from most business leaders who attended this conference was “I am here because I hear so much about blockchain but don’t really understand what it can do for us and don’t want to be left behind. It’s nice to hear several presenters here sharing what they are doing with blockchain.”

They were looking for evidence that blockchain is real and that other businesses were actually using it. They were also looking for trusted source of information about blockchain. Given today’s blockchain hype and not wanting to be left behind, business managers and leaders are under pressure to do something about blockchain in their business. And they are looking for help.

Blockchain technology is real and businesses are engaging in pilots, trials and some deployments. Adoption of blockchain technology is not without its challenges. Some companies are finding successes in their pilot results and some find that blockchain is not yet ready for their business. Blockchain is not a panacea and may not be valuable to all businesses.

“In our study, we were looking for information that a business manager would want to learn about and to find a way to help them find the gems they seek” said Jerry Witkowicz founder of Blockhelp.pro. To help those who seek to understand how blockchain technology is being used by businesses today, here are some tips and principles to follow:

• Blockchain vs Cryptocurrency – Remember one rule, blockchain is not cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency is not blockchain. Cryptocurrency was one of the first uses cases of blockchain technology and that’s it.
• Blockchain pilots – In the enterprise environments blockchain pilots are typically piloted without the use of cryptocurrency.
• Blockchain pilot announcements – There are many articles where vendors announce that they are introducing a blockchain solution for specific businesses. Some news posts lead the reader in believes that they are announcement a pilot. Look for a business/customer name which is actually launching the pilot. Otherwise it may be a vendor announcing their blockchain product for a specific category of businesses.
• Confirm – Verify the business/customer website to confirm that the business which is piloting blockchain solution has also stated this on their company website. Otherwise it may be a vendor promoting early stage discussions with potential customer/s.
• Self promoting experts – Be alert about self-promoting blockchain experts. Remember, blockchain technology may have been around for many years, and its rise in popularity driven by cryptocurrenmcy in 2018, does not make blockchain a mature technology. Therefore there are still few blockchain experts with real experience in blockchain deployments.

Use these points as your guide when reading news about blockchain. Look for the evidence which confirms who is using blockchain in a pilot, trial or deployment mode. Remember that blockchain holds a lot of promise to revolutionize how we do business in the future but it still needs to prove its value in order to reach mass adoption levels.

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